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A group of mates on a buck’s weekend have had a miraculous escape after a huge gum tree came crashing down on their campsite near Marysville.

The group ran for their lives after they heard the tree crack and then come crashing down at Big River last Saturday night.

But three of the men were caught in the path of the tree and seriously injured.

One of the men, Andrew, was sleeping in a swag next to a car that was crushed by the tree.

“He was in his swag on a stretcher bed and the full brunt of the tree went through his car and landed on his back, compressed him and the stretcher bed to the ground,” one of the group Matthew Shovelton said.

Camera IconThe huge gum crushed Andrew’s swag.Picture: GoFundMe

The man’s mates initially feared he was dead after he didn’t respond to their calls, but he was alive and unconscious.

Mr Shovelton said it was very fortunate that no-one was killed.

“If one of the boys had managed to travel an extra half a foot he probably wouldn’t be with us,” he said.

The group was able to cut their mates free and drag their broken bodies, one with bones sticking out, to safety.

There was no mobile phone coverage in the area, with some of the group driving 20 minutes on a dirt road to raise the alarm.

Two of the men were taken by air ambulance to hospital in Melbourne.

Andrew sustained injuries including nine broken ribs, broken scapula, fractures to his skull and swelling around the heart.

Andrew and his wife had a new baby just four weeks ago and the subcontractor’s car was not insured.

The other most seriously injured man, Clint Dent, suffered injuries including a broken spine in three places, a broken jaw and smashed teeth, a shattered tibia and fibula bone which was protruding from his leg and nerve damage to his right arm.